>> In addition,
organization staff in Uige were notified Friday of several workers'
fatalities, but teams were unable to investigate the causes of death or
collect the bodies for burial. Discussions "to find urgent solutions"
were under way with provincial authorities, the WHO said.

A WHO worker in Angola told
CNN that health workers had been killed by residents who erroneously
believed the workers were exposing them to the virus.

"The dramatic symptoms of
Marburg hemorrhagic fever and its frequent fatality are resulting in a
high level of fear, which is further aggravated by a lack of public
understanding about the disease," the organization said. "Moreover,
because the disease has no cure, hospitalization is not associated with
a favorable outcome, and confidence in the medical care system has been
eroded." <<

The above comment by a WHO worker suggests that the bodies that were
being retrieved
were not victims of a Marburg infection. Instead, they were
health care workers (HCWs) killed by local residents, who thought the
HCWs were infecting patients. It is unclear if this belief was
based on superstition or the rumor that initial infected cases, who
were predominantly children under the age of five, became infected from
contaminated needles used in childhood vaccinations.

In either case, it appears that HCWs are dead, the mobile
transportation units are damaged,
and it is unsafe for WHO or HCWs to interact with the local
population in certain areas of Uige. Since Uige is the epicenter
of the Marburg outbreak, these conditions could seriously compromise
collection of bodies and contact tracing.

If the HCWs and WHO are viewed as the "enemy" by the local populace,
control of the spread of Marburg by contact tracing and quarantine may
be difficult.